My Secret History

Zusatztext "Merges the two genres he's famous for... My secret history is about the permanence of marriage in the face of mistrust and infidelity; it's about the wisdom of women and the foolishness of men; and it's about mature love as the necessary and sometimes successful antidote to youthful selfishness." -- the New York Times Book Review "Consistently entertaining... Theroux's hero is a man of ironic intelligence and amusing self-awareness." -- Time Informationen zum Autor Paul Theroux Klappentext Brilliantly written! erotically charged! My Secret History is Paul Theroux's tour de force. It is the story of Andre Parent! a writer! a world traveller! a lover of every kind of woman he chances to meet in a life as varied as a man can lead. It begins with his days as a Massachusetts altar boy! when his first furtive sexual encounter introduces him to the thrills of leading a double life. As a teenaged lifeguard! Andre finds himself caught between the attentions of a beautiful young student and an amorous older woman. Soon he is in Africa! where the local women are numerous! easy! and free. And as the boy becomes a man he turns his attention to writing! which brings him fame! and a wife! who may finally cause him to know himself. But not before he sets up his most dangerous secret life! one that any man might envy! but that could cost Andre Parent the delicate balance that makes him who he is. 1.   I was born poor in rich America, yet my secret instincts were better than money and were for me a source of power. I had advantages that no one could take away from me—a clear memory and brilliant dreams and a knack for knowing when I was happy.   I was at my happiest leading two lives, and it was a satisfaction to me that the second one—of the dreamer or the sneak—I kept hidden. That was how I spent my first fifteen years. Fifteen was young then and I knew this: The poor don’t belong. But one summer out of loneliness or impatience my second self did more than wake and watch, and more than remember. He began to see like a historian, and he acted. I have to save my life, I used to think.   Early that summer I was walking down a lovely crumbling little street lined with elms, called Brookview Road. The city of Boston, with its two tall buildings, was visible from one end of the road looking east along the Fellsway. The brook was a shallow ditch at the other end of the road, where the Italian families had tomato gardens. There were rats in the ditch, but it was a pretty part of town when the wineglass elms were heavy with leaves.   It was a perfect day of blue sky and the hot summer hum of insects, which made a sound like the temperature rising. I had my rifle over my shoulder—a Mossberg twenty-two—as I passed Tina Spector’s house. She was sitting on her piazza, which was our word for porch. I had planned it this way.   She said, “Hey, Andy, where are you going with that gun?”   “Church,” I said.   “It’s Tuesday!”   “But I’ve got a funeral.”   I was still walking, and now Tina started off the piazza towards me. I knew she would: it was part of my plan.   “How come you’re bringing your gun to church?”   “Target practice, up the Sandpits,” I said. “After.”   She said, “My mother can’t stand guns.”   Everybody said that. I kept walking.   “And you’re not even sixteen,” she said.   I could feel the warm pressure of her eyes on the back of my neck.   She said, “Can I come with you?”   “Okay,” I said, probably too eagerly—but I didn’t want her to change her mind. I had planned to agree very slowly and reluctantly. I had blurted it out, because I was so glad she had asked. The thought of being alone with Tina in the Sandpits on a hot summer afternoon was very erotic, and having my rifle with me made it still more erotic, for a reas...

Product details

• Authors: Paul Theroux
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.09.1996
• EAN: 9780449912003
• ISBN: 978-0-449-91200-3
• No. of pages: 512
• Dimensions: 139 mm x 216 mm x 29 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Travel > Sports and active travel